JLF to offer history bonanza this year!

Do you want to have a small trip into the stories about the Second World War or the ruins in Pompeii? Or even about the old life of Delhi? Yes, the upcoming 2014 Jaipur Literature Festival is all set to throw a spotlight on history this year

New Delhi: Do you want a small trip into the stories about the Second World War or the ruins in Pompeii? Or even about the old life of Delhi? Yes, the upcoming 2014 Jaipur Literature Festival is all set to throw a spotlight on history this year.

The seventh edition of the five-day festival is scheduled from January 17 at Diggi Palace in Jaipur and it is expected to see participation from historians across the world.

History lovers can look forward to an interesting lineup with sessions on multiple topics ranging from the rise and fall of Vijayanagra, the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, history of Second World War to the life of Jesus.

The festival will feature a popular non-fiction author Antony Beevor, Harvard Professor Maya Jasanoff, British historian Mary Beard as well as a sneak peak of a forthcoming portrait of Delhi from Commonwealth Prize-wining author Rana Dasgupta.

Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Adrian Levy and British journalist-author Cathy Scott Clark would tell stories of guests, staff, police and the National Security Guard involved in the November 2008 terrorist attacks on the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai.

Vishwajyoti Ghosh and Ahmad Rafay Alam, who have rewritten personal and political history of partition in their latest graphic novel are scheduled to be in conversation with novelist and senior journalist, Indrajit Hazra.

Looking further back into India’s past, the archaeologist and architectural historian George Michell who has spent half his life mapping and digging the Vijayanagra, one of the greatest cities in the world and in many ways the capital and cultural hub of southern India, will tell the story of its rise and eventual fall in 1565.

Even further back in time, British historian Mary Beard is scheduled to visit JLF to recount the fate of another lost city, Pompeii which was destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE. The free-entry festival scheduled from January 17 to 21 is set to bring thinkers and writers to the Pink City for an extravaganza of literary debates and discussions.

With Amartya Sen delivering the keynote address, Gloria Steinem, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amish Tripathi, Jonathan Franzen, Mary Kom, Ekta Kapoor, Javed Akhtar are some of the other renowned personalities who will be hosting insightful sessions at the festival this year.